Bringing Home the Bronze (Claire Stancliffe, GB Deaf Women)

Great Britain’s deaf women’s team were told there was no money for their World Cup trip and went anyway, coming home with bronze. Captain Claire Stancliffe describes a group stage of a frustrating draw with Poland, wins over Turkey and hosts Italy and a hard-fought loss to the United States, then defeat by Russia that cost them a final place. With only seventeen hours before the bronze-medal match against Poland, she gathered the squad in the echoing tunnel for a shout that the Polish players felt as vibrations and turned to look at. In scorching heat her side found an extra burst in the last twenty minutes to score twice. Nine years of fundraising, she says, paid off in that moment.